THIS is the shocking moment a window cleaner was left hanging 70ft above ground after plunging from the roof of a building in Russia.
Footage of the incredible scene shows the man dangerously swaying from power lines above a street in St Petersburg.
The wires were wedged underneath the mans armpits as he desperately tries to balance and avoid falling to his death.
The cleaner was clearing snow and ice off the roof of a building when he slipped over the side.
But his fall was broken by the wires on the sixth storey, saving him from plunging to the ground.
He managed to cheat death despite not wearing a harness, as required for moving snow from rooftops.
After he was caught by the power cables in the -10C cold, a qualified alpine climber lowered himself with a harness from a nearby building.
But he could not reach the stricken cleaner, according to reports.
Crowds gathered below in Pravda Street to catch a glimpse of the high wire drama.
Passers-by who had heard the man shouting for help brought out mattresses and placed them beneath him.
Emergency services arrived and eventually used an extendable ladder from a fire truck to bring him down to safety.
The crowd of onlookers applauded as he was successfully lowered.
One said: “The man slipped while clearing ice and ended up hanging on the wire.
“He was incredibly lucky.
“I immediately called the emergency services, and people started dragging mattresses, thinking the wire wouldn’t hold.
“He wasn’t even screaming.
“He was just afraid he wouldn’t hold on.”
The cleaner was rushed to hospital by a waiting ambulance, but was found to be unhurt and did not require treatment.
Media reports hailed him as the “luckiest man in Russia” for his escape.
A criminal case has been opened into possible safety breaches.
It comes after an elderly man was left dangling from a clothes drying rack, after falling from a 15th storey flat in China.
The man was left lying on his back with his legs hanging in mid-air while he awaited his rescue, with onlookers worried the rack would break any second under his weight.
He was saved by a brave security guard who climbed down the outside of the high-rise building in the city of Nanjing in Jiangsu province in China.
